The incoming Democratic majority in the state Senate handed out committee chair assignments on Tuesday, with several Bronx senators getting tapped to lead key committees by incoming state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins of Yonkers. As committee chairs, the Bronx Senate Delegation can set the agenda for the upcoming legislative session.

Sen. Gustavo Rivera will head the Health Committee, Senator-elect Alessandra Biaggi will chair the notoriously ineffective Ethics Committee, and Sen. Luis Sepulveda will preside over the Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee. Sen. Jamaal Bailey, who represents most of Norwood and Bedford Park, will chair the Codes Committee, which oversees all criminal justice legislation.

“I look forward to true criminal justice reform that is predicated on fairness for ALL – not for the powerful, not based on wealth – for all,” Bailey tweeted.

Bailey, the Democratic ranking member on the Republican-controlled committee, has sponsored dozens of bills related to criminal justice since he took office in 2017, particularly related to bail reform, women’s prisons and speedy trial laws. In October, Bailey appeared at a town hall on criminal justice at the Parkside Houses hosted by the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaign. At the event, Bailey spoke alongside Black Lives Matter of Greater New York president Hawk Newsome, Kalief Browder’s brother Akeem, and other criminal justice activists.

“Criminal justice reform affects each and every one of us, whether it’s happened to you personally or not,” Bailey said at the Oct. 4 event. “It matters not whether your house is clean, if the house next door is unkept.”

Biaggi, who will represent the 34th Senate district including Riverdale, Kingsbridge, parts of Bedford Park and much of the East Bronx, ran as a hardline progressive and a grassroots alternative to Independent Democratic Conference head Jeff Klein, a legislative leader accused of sexual harassment and who spent over $3 million on his primary campaign.

“Now New York finally has the chance to clean up,” Zephyr Teachout, perennial progressive office-seeker and Fordham law professor with an expertise in campaign finance reform, tweeted. “[Biaggi is] up against fierce real estate interests and political machines that die hard. Can’t wait to see her beat ‘em like she beat Klein!”

With legislative leaders convicted every few years, it is no surprise ethics and Albany do not mix well, but the state Senate Ethics Committee has met only twice since June 2009. The committee last met under Elaine Phillips, a Long Island Republican who currently chairs the committee, on June 15, 2017. Outgoing state Senator Tony Avella of Queens was the chair of the committee for five months in 2015 and testified in the trial of former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos that he was reassigned by Republican leadership after trying to call a committee meeting in the wake of Skelos’ arrest.

 

Mine too! https://t.co/kaaL1GtDpm

— Alessandra Biaggi (@Biaggi4NY) December 11, 2018

Rivera, who represents parts of Fordham, Bedford Park and University Heights, will now be responsible for guiding healthcare legislation to the senate floor, potentially including the Women’s Reproductive Health Act and any universal healthcare or Medicaid expansion proposals that emerge in the next legislative session.

“I will not cease my efforts to continue building a stronger, more efficient healthcare delivery system that treats healthcare as a right for the 20 million New Yorkers we serve,” Rivera said in a statement.

Sepulveda tweeted he was looking forward to serving the Chair of the Senate Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and Correction which oversees the parole and correction systems in New York. Sepulveda has made reducing prison populations and reforming the parole system central focuses of his tenure as a state senator.

State Sen. Jose Serrano, the ranking member of the Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation committee, will be promoted to chair come January. Serrano’s district – which spans parts of the South Bronx and uptown Manhattan – includes popular tourist destinations like Central Park, Randall’s Island, and Yankee Stadium, but only two state parks, according to the New York parks department website.